Personal Finance - Home Ownership

https://medium.com/@chrisjeffrieshomelessromantic/report-44-of-all-single-family-home-purchases-were-by-private-equity-firms-in-2023-0c0ff591a701

It seems like the bigger numbers come from confusing “investors” with “institutional investors”.

Well, if Mr. Wonderful says it’s bad, it must be good.

The solution probably isn’t a ban - but just make the Homestead property tax exemptions more generous. Wouldn’t completely stop investors and PE firms from buying homes, but at least the local areas would get a bigger cut of their profits and it might even the playing field a bit.

Of course, lots of people would complain if their home values go down a bit (which seems crazy since home value really doesn’t matter until you are ready to sell).

This guy’s schtick is reporting on real estate and the economy and that 44% figure is incorrect by two orders of magnitude.

https://x.com/NewsLambert/status/1733988334760767943

https://x.com/NewsLambert/status/1733989561733087657?s=20

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I for one am shocked, shocked, to see zoomennials get basic fucking facts wrong. This was well-sourced on TikTok.

Not sure if this is the thread for home remodeling questions.

We’re doing a kitchen remodel. Currently we have an electric stove, which we hate. We were all set to go natural gas for the new cooktop, but now are wavering a bit on gas vs induction.

I know gas is being phased out to a certain extent. Not so much in our state yet. We live in a cold state and I can’t see gas being eliminated in the next 20 years, due to the fact it’s used for heating. But maybe I’m wrong.

I don’t want to have to buy all new pots. For example I have some All Clad pots, which I spent some decent $ on, some of which won’t work on induction (this is my understanding anyway. I had some from the LTD line which have too much aluminum).

Anyone have experience with induction tops vs gas? Any thoughts on selling a house with a gas top (in ten years or so)? We cook a lot, if that is a factor.

I’ve never used gas but we got an induction stove a little while back and it’s great. It boils water super fast, heats everything evenly, and is easy to quickly get to the precise temperature you want once you get used to it. In terms of buying new pots, you have to factor in there would be some cost to running a new gas line up to your kitchen and hooking it up so that might balance it out. It would be built in to the overall remodel cost but it would be there.

I’ve had both. Induction heats up faster and is more efficient but gas does have a more primal “cooking with fire” emotional feel.

They’re both wayyy better than old school electric stovetops.

We went from gas to induction. Induction is clearly superior for the reasons L. Washington pointed out. The only downsides to induction is that you can’t char stuff over an open flame and you can’t use it if the power goes out. For everything else induction is better.

If you’re doing a remodel, then new pots and pans is a really small percentage of the overall cost. Shouldn’t move the needle much.

There’s also some research showing gas stoves are not great for your health.

After having had gas in my home for 25+ years, I now live in an apartment with a new, glass-top (non induction) electric range. Although I can’t comment on the speed relative to induction or to a new gas stove, I have no issues with being able to get my cookware as hot as I want them or to have reliable heat control.

I always feel like I’m going to break electric or induction burners, but I’m kinda a hammerhead in the kitchen. Give me gas all day.

Also there was a restaurant kitchen I worked in that was 100% induction and the burners were constantly breaking. Nothing like a Saturday night dinner service with only 75% of the burners working.

We have been leaning towards induction for the reasons people have mentioned. It’s tough though, since we both grew up using gas and sort of look at it as “real” cooking. I realize that may just be nostalgia or irrational attachment though

Yeah we would have an expense item in the remodel to run a gas line to the kitchen, and we could use that for new pots. It sounds weird but I have sentimental value for some of my pots, since they have served me so long and so well

the natural gas company propaganda is real

People like fire, it’s visceral

I always see garbage trucks advertising that they run on clean natural gas.

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We have a flat glass top stove and my biggest complaint is that most pans are slightly warped on the bottom and don’t sit well on it, so you don’t get an even heat across the pan. When I replaced it I considered adding a gas line just to get around this but ultimately didn’t want the headache and just bought another electric that has the same problems.

Are there any easy fixes to this? I know jack shit about induction. Growing up we had electric that had those shitty metal exposed coils, but at least this seem to have some flex to set a pan on them evenly.

For both crash, who may have incompatible pans, and Koss, with bowed pans, there are things like this:

I’ve been lobbying MrsWookie to switch to induction given the heath risks cited above. The underlying data seemed pretty strong to me.

Try to avoid the pans warping in the first place, which is usually caused by exposing them to extreme temperature fluctuations (esp, running hot pans under cold water)